Thursday, December 07, 2006

What’s the Price of No Jack?

Someone threw out a hypothetical situation last night during dinner. They asked if I would give up drinking if a girl I was dating or would possibly date asked me. Not entirely stop, but just major cutbacks on the drinking. Also, what if they asked me to stop drinking Jack (completely, or major cutback) because of some bad associations the girl has with guys that drank Jack?

Now many of you know I’m quite fond of Jack and drinking in general. Not to the degree that it’s a problem, but I do drink regularly enough.

So the question I pose is this. When is changing for someone acceptable and when is it problematic? Granted, in this situation, me drinking less is probably something I need to do anyway, but what if it was another behavior. Like something harmless that you like to do. Would you stop just because your mate asked you to? What if they had no reason other than they don’t like it?

When does it go from compromising to just the other person trying to mold you into someone else? Is that always a bad thing? Do you find that you do that in your relationships?

A lot of people say you should like the person for who they are, but we all know a little bit of tweeking maybe necessary. When does it go from Tweeking to reshaping. Are we to embrace our own individuality so much that we don't compromise?